At its June 18 meeting, the Los Banos City Council approved the city’s 2025-2026 budget. The council also approved roads to be repaired in the next fiscal year, made final amendments to the 2024-2025 budget and hired a firm to audit the city’s expenses for the next three to five years.
Mayor Micheal Amabile led a quorum of council members Marcus Chavez, Evan Sanders and Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis. The District 1 council spot remains vacant until an August 26 special election.
The budget, as reported to the council by Finance Director Minnie Moreno, was mostly the same viewed at the last meeting and described by Amabile as “the best budget I’ve ever approved.”
A major change between the draft and final budget added salary schedules to allow the new public works director and city engineer positions (now two separate positions) more flexibility. Interim City Manager Gary Brizzee explained that having a public works director who can perform some duties of the city engineer would be greatly beneficial, such as overseeing and approving city engineering plans which are constantly in need of approval.
In the general fund, the expenditures include more dollars for personnel, spay and neuter programs, homeless funding and contingency.
The budget passed unanimously. The budget “set the bar,” Councilmember Sanders said. Mayor Pro Tem Lewis had hoped that the one unfunded battalion chief position would find funding to relieve pressure on the fire chief.
The roads to be repaired with hot mix overlays are in two phases. Phase one includes West I Street, S. Rockcreek Drive, Riverbrook Court, Sunstream Court, S. Fallbrook Drive and Cool Springs Court. Phase two includes Ortigalita Road, Sequoia Way, Hemlock Drive, Eucalyptus Court, Tamarack Way, Alberta Street, Hawthorne Drive, Ash Avenue and H Street.
The total cost, according to Interim Public Works Director Joe Heim’s report, is $3,955,936. Additionally, $184,000 for crack seals was approved. State funding contributes $1.3 million of the funding and county Measure V funds contribute $2.7 million. Another $300,000 comes from Measure V Alternative funding that goes to sidewalks, bike lanes and other alternative means of transport.
Heim’s report revealed a significant statistic. The average Pavement Condition Index (PCI) for similar cities is 76 out of 100. Los Banos’ PCI is 48, as an average city-wide. Heim estimated that it would take $23.4 million to completely fix Los Banos’ roads with a PCI of 24 and below.
Heim said that as the city has grown, maintenance has not kept up. “I do not think it is sustainable at this time,” Heim warned. He also emphasized that “this is not doomsday,” and the city has the reserves and time needed to be strategic in solving the problem. He thanked the city council for adding an extra $2.5 million to the road budget for next year.
Heim reported that in total, $6.5 million is set aside for maintaining 136 miles of streets, five miles of alleys, 272 miles of curb and gutter and 262 miles of sidewalk city-wide.
In the final budget amendments for the fiscal year, as reported by Moreno, the city transferred $202,602 to the Pioneer Road Widening Project and $225, 000 to bring Lighting and Landscaping District 11 (LLD 11) “out of the red.”
Lewis asked why the funds were being transferred to LLD 11 when a previous funds transfer had already attempted to do so in 2022-2023. Finance consultant Brent Kuhn explained that the council had transferred $150,000 in 2024-2025 while the LLD 11 started to improve. Initially, city staff had expected $525,000 would be needed to bring the district out of the red, but now it would only take a combined $375,000.
“LLD 11 really has a handicap,” Heim explained, “It’s capped at 5% increases as opposed to 10% that other districts allow. Rates are easily spent just on rising utility bills, Heim explained. “The leftover deficit from really decades of it building up needed something like this in order to get it to a clean state,” Heim said.
In another council action, Clifton Larson Allen LLP was given a contract to audit the city for the next three years with a potential two-year extension, according to Moreno’s report. The first year will cost $73,555, the second will be $79,950, the third $76,350, and the potential fourth is $77,750 with a fifth year at $79,250. This was approved as part of the consent agenda.
The council also appointed Blanche Jorge as a member of the Merced County Association of Governments (MCAG) Measure V Citizens Oversight Committee.
In their reports, Moreno reported that her “shop smart and support local” campaign will be starting soon. Police Chief Ray Reyna said the county and the city police are working to shut down illegal food vendors. Brizzee reported that stalled work at the animal shelter is coming to an end as Pacific Gas and Electric is finally connecting the electricity. And councilmembers praised the continuing effort to clean up the G Street homeless encampment.
